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View Full Version : 4 GB Microdrives Coming This Fall


Jason Dunn
03-04-2003, 06:55 AM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,109621,tk,dn030303X,00.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.pcworld.com/news/article...n030303X,00.asp</a><br /><br /></div>I found this tiny quote in an article about digital cameras:<br /><br />"Hitachi recently said its Microdrive would jump to 4GB in capacity but isn't expected to ship until fall."<br /><br />That's the first confirmation I've seen about the Microdrive since IBM sold it to Hitachi. I don't know about you, but 4 GB late this year just doesn't seem like a lot of space...unless it's priced very low. I'm not eager to buy another Microdrive - I paid $650 CND for mine about two years ago, and as amazing as it was at the time, it went flaky on me two months after the warranty expired. It now makes a strange clicking noise when I try to do a sector scan.<br /><br />I remain convinced that solid-state memory is the future of storage, not spinning platters of metal, especially when it comes to mobile devices.

ricksfiona
03-04-2003, 07:23 AM
Flash memory is the way to go for a PDA. Microdrives are too touchy for hardcore mobile types.

gadfly
03-04-2003, 07:38 AM
Yes, but it does bring up the discussion of flash memory *format*. Most of the high capacity cards, including the new 4MB Lexar, are CompactFlash. Even though I have a camera that takes CF - the recent price drops, the Compaq/HP decision to go with SD, and the digital camera market adopting XD - makes me think now is not the time to invest much in CF.

vincentsiaw
03-04-2003, 07:45 AM
for me still the 4 GB cf is the way to go yeah.....

Pony99CA
03-04-2003, 09:27 AM
I remain convinced that solid-state memory is the future of storage, not spinning platters of metal, especially when it comes to mobile devices.
I don't know. If I could get a 20 GB PC Card drive (basically what's in an iPod) for about $400 ($100 less than the 20 GB iPod), I think that would be pretty compelling.

Of course, I own an iPAQ 3870 and have a dual PC Card sleeve. :-)

Steve

don dre
03-04-2003, 02:34 PM
I've had my MD for more than a year with no problems. This time last year 1GB for $225 was a great deal. I'd pay $300 for a 4 gb card. SD is ridiculous right now...well, too high for me anyways. I agree that the future is non-volatile but if you want storage space now then this is the way to go.

Kirkaiya
03-04-2003, 02:49 PM
I'd have to 2nd Jason's opinion - I have seen the future, and it's solid-state...

While SD memory (at the large-size end of the scale) is very high-priced now, the high-end is rapidly going up. There are now 512 MB SD cards on the market, and the price for 128 MB cards is pretty reasonable (under $70, and with rebates, as low as $50).

Since SD Cards are already at a half-gigabyte, I have to think that given a year or so, there will be 1 GB SD cards on the market, and the 256 MB cards will be cheap.

At which point.. I start to wonder - just how much data *does* the average person, or even the power-user, need to carry with them? I mean - given that infinite storage space is the ideal, what is a practical size for you? Or, if there's different sizes you'd use for different things, what are they?

For me:

If I had only 64 MB of removable storage, I'd use it to install those apps that I don't want hogging up my main unit, as a space to store a full back up for my main unit, and maybe a few mp3 songs..

If I had 128 - 256 MB (which I do), I'd do all of the above, plus increase the number of songs to about 25, plus put in a few collections of my travel pictures (I have them reduced to 240x320, and use a picture viewer utility to show them off).

If I had 512 MB, I would do all of the above, but double my song collection to maybe 50 or 60 songs, put on a pocket dictionary, pocket encyclopedia, and maybe keep an episode or 2 of a TV show in there (optimized for the screen size) to watch when I was bored. Probably also keep a bunch of Palm OS apps as a library that i could beam to my wife and her sister, who have Palms (I actually have a few on there now, on my 128 MB card)

If I had 4 GB... I would do all the above, PLUS have a few movies (the Matrix, The Graduate, or whatever) all optimized to fit my screen (and thus reducing their file-size). I'm thinking I could probably fit a good 3 to 5 full-length movies at reduced format, along with my library of 70 to 100 MP3 songs, all the photos I scanned/snapped with digicam, etc, and still have room left over.

At which point.. I don't know what I could possibly do with more. Heck, I don't really even want to have a bunch of movies on there that badly. For me, right now, having over 256 MB of storage is basically pointless. I can imagine the uses for it, but practically, would I use it? Probably not.

I know some people keep iPods full of 500 songs or whatever, but since I don't even like that many, for me, the storage issue is already over... :-)

Pony99CA
03-04-2003, 03:53 PM
I'd have to 2nd Jason's opinion - I have seen the future, and it's solid-state...

The problem is that people always want more. Look at your desktop or laptop. My laptop has a 20 GB hard disk that's 85-90% full. Imagine what getting 20 GB of RAM would cost. Now imagine getting 20 GB of Flash RAM. :-)

I start to wonder - just how much data *does* the average person, or even the power-user, need to carry with them? I mean - given that infinite storage space is the ideal, what is a practical size for you? Or, if there's different sizes you'd use for different things, what are they?

Bill Gates said nobody would need more than 640 KB of RAM, too. :-D What seems immense now will seem cramped in the future.

I went from a 256 MB CF card to a 512 MB CF card. My 256 MB card was only used for two things -- MP3s and my GPS software and maps. After a few days, the 512 MB card was full. Why? I put more MP3s on it (and I still have some overflow on my 256 MB SD card), a much larger map for my GPS (Sacramento to San Diego and the coast to Phoenix, instead of Sacramento to Bakersfield and the coast to Yosemite) and the full points-of-interest database for my GPS.

Do I need all of that? Not really, but when I do, it saves me time from having to create a special map just to drive to Phoenix. It also gives me more variety in what I can choose to listen to depending on my mood.

Steve

Janak Parekh
03-04-2003, 04:31 PM
I agree with Steve for the most part - if flash memory was the only way to go, we'd start putting flash in laptops instead of hard drives. But we don't, because we use more space.

On the other hand, IMO a 4GB Microdrive is too little, too late. The fact that 4GB CF might even hit the market before a 4GB MD kills any prospect of this taking off -- unless it's priced very cheap to start.

--janak

don dre
03-04-2003, 04:37 PM
I seem to remember the MD came out at $400 while the 1GB CF came out higher than $800. Moreover, it's Hitachi not IBM. Hitachi certainly proces more agressively than IBM. It's nto dead in the water in that case. The future may be solid state but I'm not shelling out $800 for storage. the 512MB Sd card may be available but it's way too expensive right now. Much of this depends on timing. If you want more space sooner and your wallet isn't thick, then maybe the MD will work for you. It's been rumored that the next gen MD will use less power as well.

Kirkaiya
03-04-2003, 07:35 PM
I'd have to 2nd Jason's opinion - I have seen the future, and it's solid-state...

The problem is that people always want more. Look at your desktop or laptop. My laptop has a 20 GB hard disk that's 85-90% full. Imagine what getting 20 GB of RAM would cost. Now imagine getting 20 GB of Flash RAM. :-)

Well - I can imagine getting 20 GB of Flash RAM, and I image that, in a few years, we'll all be toting around 20 GB of stuff in our PDAs... It seems to me that, while solid-state tech is always a year or three behind spinning-disk tech (as far as storage capacitiy & price), that lag is only of interest to the early-adopters who want that extra storage right from the get-go.

By the time the bulk of users feel the need for 1 GB of storage, the flash-mem is priced in line with the Microdrive. Iomega was selling their little "click-disks" for awhile also, but I belive they are dead now - killed by flash memory.


I start to wonder - just how much data *does* the average person, or even the power-user, need to carry with them? I mean - given that infinite storage space is the ideal, what is a practical size for you? Or, if there's different sizes you'd use for different things, what are they?

Bill Gates said nobody would need more than 640 KB of RAM, too. :-D What seems immense now will seem cramped in the future.

Umm.. Pony - just from your post-count, I'm gonna pass judgement and say that you are NOT the average user (I specifically said "average user" and power-user to exclude the technological zealots like many of us here).

My point is that *right now*, most people don't have 1 GB of stuff that they are really going to carry around with them. Most people don't yet have any GPS device, much less a GPS integrated with their PDA (most people do not, in fact, have PDAs at all... lol.. anyway).

Finally - there is a real limit to the Hard-drive solution in terms of size - it would be rather difficult to fit a mechanical HD into an SD card, for instance, without going to nano-tech.

In the meantime - advancements in memory-technology will continue, and yes, I predict that by 2007, somebody will be selling a 20 GB Flash-Ram product (whether it's in CF, or SD, or whatever).

Pony99CA
03-05-2003, 04:36 AM
I'd have to 2nd Jason's opinion - I have seen the future, and it's solid-state...

The problem is that people always want more. Look at your desktop or laptop. My laptop has a 20 GB hard disk that's 85-90% full. Imagine what getting 20 GB of RAM would cost. Now imagine getting 20 GB of Flash RAM. :-)
Well - I can imagine getting 20 GB of Flash RAM, and I image that, in a few years, we'll all be toting around 20 GB of stuff in our PDAs... It seems to me that, while solid-state tech is always a year or three behind spinning-disk tech (as far as storage capacitiy &amp; price), that lag is only of interest to the early-adopters who want that extra storage right from the get-go.

I can imagine 20 GB Flash RAM, too. I also can imagine holo-cube storage. But, like you, I was talking about right now. Even if 20 GB Flash RAM was available today, can you imagine what it would cost?

Your claim of solid state lagging disk media by 1-3 years is not born out by facts, though. We have 200 GB hard disks now. Show me any solid state memory with that capacity.

By the time the bulk of users feel the need for 1 GB of storage, the flash-mem is priced in line with the Microdrive. Iomega was selling their little "click-disks" for awhile also, but I belive they are dead now - killed by flash memory.

They were killed because they were overpriced for the 40 MB you got. Zip and Jaz disks are also dead, but not because of RAM prices, I don't think; they're dead because hard disk capacities have gone up so much.

My point is that *right now*, most people don't have 1 GB of stuff that they are really going to carry around with them. Most people don't yet have any GPS device, much less a GPS integrated with their PDA (most people do not, in fact, have PDAs at all... lol.. anyway).

My point is that, now that 1 GB Flash is reasonably priced, I bet people will find 1 GB of data to take with them. :-)

Finally - there is a real limit to the Hard-drive solution in terms of size - it would be rather difficult to fit a mechanical HD into an SD card, for instance, without going to nano-tech.

Solid state devices are already using &lt;100 nm technology, so maybe disks will, too. Personally, I'm hoping we'll eventually have read-write holographic cubes by then. :-)

In the meantime - advancements in memory-technology will continue, and yes, I predict that by 2007, somebody will be selling a 20 GB Flash-Ram product (whether it's in CF, or SD, or whatever).
Disk technology will improve, too. But we're talking about right now. :-)

Steve